Since Sunday, fans have been asking NASCAR to release a photo of the alleged noose that was put in the garage of Bubba Wallace that caused so much controversy.
We now have that photo and one look at it shows you just why everybody reacted the way they did.
That is most certainly a noose and it’s understandable why the FBI had to come in and make sure nothing fishy was going on.
Bubba Wallace tweeted out a statement on Wednesday about the supposed noose found in his garage, saying that he’s “relieved” to know it wasn’t meant for him, but embarrassed by the mixup after the FBI ended its hate crime investigation.
“It’s been an emotional few days. First off, I want to say how relieved I am that the investigation revealed that this wasn’t what we feared it was,” he wrote. “I want to thank my team, NASCAR and the FBI for acting swiftly and treating this as a real threat.
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“I think we’ll gladly take a little embarrassment over what the alternatives could have been,” Wallace continued. “Make no mistake, though some will try, this should not detract from the show of unity we had on Monday, and the progress we’ve made as a sport to be a more welcoming environment for all.”
The FBI determined that the noose found in Wallace’s garage at Talladega Superspeedway had been there since at least last year.
“The FBI learned that garage number 4, where the noose was found, was assigned to Bubba Wallace last week. The investigation also revealed evidence, including authentic video confirmed by NASCAR, that the noose found in garage number 4 was in that garage as early as October 2019,” the bureau said. “Although the noose is now known to have been in garage number 4 in 2019, nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week.”
Wallace also addressed the controversy with CNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday night:
“I’ve been racing all of my life,” he said. “We’ve raced out of hundreds of garages that never had garage pulls like that. So people that want to call it a garage pull and put out all the videos and photos of knots being as their evidence, go ahead, but from the evidence that we have – and I have – it’s a straight-up noose.”
He wasn’t wrong.
